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GD 3.0 and GUESS 3.0 Topic

Several people have asked me if the GUESS Reports are going to be ready for the new engine. The answer is - Yes, we should be.

I am still refining my ratings formulas for the new engine, but I have the code ready to go. I also need to finish downloading and formatting some graphic files (team logos). There is, however, one small concern, which, although I don't expect it to be an issue, I feel I should give you a heads up.

(For background - the GUESS reports web pages are written with Ruby on Rails as the web framework.) On October 28th, my web hosting company will be installing a new version of Ruby, and a new version of the Rails framework. Fortunately, I had already written the "next generation" of the GUESS reports using the newer version, so I'm covered there. The problem is, I can't deploy my code and test it on the web host until they complete the upgrade. While I HAVE tested it on my computers, and I am confident there won't be any problems, I can't be SURE until deploying it on the live server.

The upgrade will probably break the old version of the reports, so I am planning on importing the team ratings into the new database for historical purposes.

Besides a new layout, and new ratings, the biggest thing you'll notice immediately is that will be a single home page for all worlds. Using drop down boxes, you will select your world, select your season (old seasons have always been available but now you will be able to select them), select your division, then click a button for either full roster reports or recruit class reports. I've also tried to improve the navigation between pages, and the player pages will include ratings for all the position roles.

Under the hood, however, are a couple of significant changes in the way team ratings will be calculated and presented. No longer will you be penalized in the rankings for signing a QB or a kicker. Although these players will probably still score lower than other players, team rankings will be done on the RELATIVE VALUE of the player. For example, QB's will be ranked from best score to worst score within the division. The top QB contributes a relative value of 100 to the team ranking, the worst QB contributes a score of zero, and everyone else falls somewhere in between, based on their rating and where that falls within the range of best to worst. A top RB may score 83.5, a top WR might score 80.1, and the top QB might score 71.4, but all will contribute the same RELATIVE value to the rankings. You'll still be able to see the average score of all your players. I realize this isn't a perfect system, but I believe it's a step in the right direction.

The other major change is that player ratings will now be given for "base" position and the position roles, but the BASE position score will be what is used in determining a team's score. For example, DB's will get a rating as DB, CB, and S, but the DB rating will always be used for team rankings, even if the score for CB or S is higher. This eliminate the artificial roster imbalances that the current method uses, where teams might have 6 ILB and 1 OLB on their "roster" as listed in the GUESS reports. Again, when you look at the full roster report or the recruit class report, you can see all the ratings for every role, but base position score will be what counts toward the rankings.

I'll try to capture some screen shots from my computer to give you an idea of how things will look.

That sounds awesome and exciting. If you have not donated to the GD Reports, you should. It is one of the things that makes Gridiron Dynasty great. It's a little crazy that What If Sports didn't utilize more of this in the 3.0 but Bob has you covered.

I personally would not play the game without the Yatzr recruiting tool and use of the GD Reports and their understanding of how to build an effective team.